ever.

tended to so earnestly and fully; a considerable number of the soldiers, with their Officers, now in the Crimea, are actually religious men-true Christians. The state of religion in the East has already felt the influence of the War, and is continuing to do so more and more. The Author, adopting the views of the late Nicholas, goes on to contend that Turkey is "dying;" the Mahommedan Power can no longer defend itself; 3,000,000 cannot continue to domineer over 12,000,000. The Sultan, moreover, has proclaimed to all his subjects liberty of conscience; "The Sword or the Koran" will cease to be uttered any more in any case for There has been laid open a highway for Christianity, especially for Protestantism, or Bible Christianity, throughout Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Bible is everywhere freely distributed. The truth of treaties has been violated with craft and treachery, but religious truth is also forced into the field of conflict. Dr. Hetherington maintains that the "War is so truly a War of religions, that everything regarding it, past, present, and prospective, must be judged of by religious principles and duties." The argument on behalf of this view is strong, but there are great difficulties to be encountered in fairly establishing it. To this Dr. Hetherington is by no means insensible, and it may be that his solution may prove in the main correct. He thinks France will gain by her intercourse with England, and that neither she nor her emperor has any special love of priestly domination. He thinks it possible that a contest may even arise between the Popish Priesthood of France and the nation itself, which may break the Papal power, and give France spiritual liberty, rendering the Alliance between her and Great Britain true and permanent, because founded on principles of eternal truth. So may it come to pass!

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. PRESENTATION OF THE ROYAL AWARDS ΤΟ DR. DAVID LIVINGSTON AND MR. CHARLES J. ANDERSSON.

THE Royal Geographical Society has done itself honour by its prompt and cordial recognition of the claims of Dr. Livingston and Mr. C. J. Andersson. From the Report of the Society, which

has just appeared, we extract the following, which will be read with pleasure by the friends of Missions throughout the world.

After the adoption of the Council Report, the President rose to present the Awards, and Dr. Tidman having come forward, on the part of the London Missionary Society, to receive the gold medal for Dr. Livingston, Lord Ellesmere said:

"After the observations which have been addressed to this meeting, on the subject of Dr. Livingston's merits, by a Right Reverend Prelate, the Bishop of Oxford, a Fellow of this Society, it has become scarcely necessary for me to say anything in justification of an award, which I know will meet with an assent as unanimous in this assembly as it did in our council-room. If its further vindication were necessary, I should appeal rather to the eye than the ear. I should point to the pregnant sketches of the routes of recent South African discoverers on our walls; and borrowing from the epitaph of Wren the simple word 'Circumspice,' request you to search for yourselves, where Dr. Livingston entered on the terra incognita of South Africa, and where, at Loando, he emerged. The satisfaction with which I pronounce the award of our Society, unanimous as I am sure it is, is only alloyed by the circumstance that Dr. Livingston is not here in person to receive it, as he might have been, but for that noble spirit of perseverance and fidelity to his engagements with a native chief, which has launched him again on his adventurous career. It is some consolation to feel that, in his absence, I could not more appropriately confide this medal than to the hands of Dr. Tidman, the distinguished Secretary of the London Missionary Society, which has found and sent forth an instrument for their sacred purposes, so illustrious as Dr. Livingston. Your character, Sir, and your functions remind me, that if Dr. Livingston has incidentally done that for science which has deserved from us, as a scientific Society, our highest reward, he has gone forth with even higher objects than those which we specially pursue. Your presence here reminds me that his object has been the introduction of Christian truth into benighted regions, and that the means and methods of his action have been strictly appropriate to his ends. Within these two

days a volume in the Portuguese language has been placed in my hands, the record of a Portuguese expedition of African explora tion from the East coast. I advert to it to point out the contrast between the two. Colonel Monteiro was the leader of a small army-some 20 Portuguese soldiers and 120 Caffres. I find in the volume no reason to believe that this armed and disciplined force was abused to any purpose of outrage or oppression; but still the contrast is as striking between such military array and the solitary grandeur of the missionary's progress, as it is between the actual achievements of the two; between the rough knowledge obtained by the Portuguese of some 300 leagues of new country, and the scientific precision with which the unarmed and unassisted Englishman has left his mark on so many important stations of regions hitherto a blank, over which our associate, Mr. Arrowsmith, has sighed in vain. To you, then, Sir, I gladly confide this mark of our Society's appreciation of Dr. Livingston's merits; and I would fain hope that our award will add somewhat to the satisfaction you and your fellow-labourers must indulge, in having selected and sent forth such an instrument of your high and holy designs."

The Rev. Dr. Tidman replied: "My Lord, In receiving this mark of honour on behalf of Dr. Livingston, I can but very inadequately express the gratification which I feel that my intrepid and devoted friend should have secured the distinguished commendation of the President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society.

"When I had the pleasure, on a former occasion, of receiving, as Dr. Livingston's representative, the award of a chronometer watch from your Society, I ventured to express the sanguine expectation that, if his life were spared, he would hereafter accomplish more extended labours for the exploration of the interior of Southern Africa. That expectation was founded on the knowledge I have long possessed of the indefatigable industry and dauntless courage of Dr. Livingston; his ardent love of science; and, above all, his disinterested Christian benevolence toward the aboriginal tribes of that hitherto unexplored region: for I need not inform your Lordship and this meeting, that, how anxious soever our missionary traveller may be to ascertain the geographical facts and physical features of the country, his

first and ultimate object is with the people, by introducing them to a knowledge of that inspired volume which is the true source of civilization and happiness in the present life, no less than of immortal hope and joy beyond it.

"When Christian missionaries half a century since commenced their work of mercy in Southern Africa, the native tribes possessed no symbol, or visible form of thought; and the Rev. Robert Moffatt and others had to acquire the knowledge of their rude speech, not by the eye, but by the ear; to make the hut of the savage their study, and by a nice comparison of utterances and sounds, to learn, by slow degrees, the thoughts and feelings of the natives. But over these difficulties their ardour and perseverance triumphed; and they have given back to these aborigines, in their own tongue, various treatises on educa. tion and useful knowledge, together with that inspired volume which can make men wise unto salvation.

"Dr. Livingston, in the course of his extended journey, found his knowledge of the Sichuana language invaluable; for notwithstanding the variety of dialects which prevailed among different tribes, he was able to hold easy and intelligent intercourse with all; but, in addition to the charm which the traveller bears about him who can speak the language of the people whom he visits, Dr. Livingston carries with him the stronger charm of truthfulness, rectitude, and disinterestedness-these have secured for him a good name, and throughout his journey, with rare exceptions, he was received with confidence and treated with kindness by the natives.

"I sympathise deeply in the pleasure expressed by the Bishop of Oxford, who moved the adoption of your Report, that this most successful effort to explore the terra incognita of Southern Africa has been accomplished by a Christian missionary; and I can confidently assure your Lordship and this meeting, that you will find in these devoted labourers, in every field of their efforts, the true friends of science and social improvement, no less than the faithful teachers of religion.

"It would be premature to offer an opinion on the probable results of Dr. Livingston's researches in the future extension of civilization and Christianity in South Africa; but it is a benevolent and noble enterprise to seek out these myriads, who have remained for ages unknown to the great family of man; and as they are now brought within our

sympathy, so we may hope, by God's help, to extend to them hereafter the blessings of knowledge and of true religion."

Mr. Andersson being present to receive from the President the gift awarded to him by the Society, of a portable box of surveying instruments, containing a sextant and stand, artificial horizon, watch, thermometers for boiling-point observations, measuringtapes, etc., the President addressed him:

"Sir,-It is my agreeable duty to place in your hands a gift of this Society, which, while it evinces their opinion of your merits and achievements as a traveller and discoverer in South Africa, we hope you may turn to account for the further undertakings you contemplate. It will not diminish its value in your eyes to know that it has been prepared under the counsel and direction of your former companion and constant friend, Mr. Galton. It was with a similar gift from this Society that Dr. Livingston conducted many of his admirable observations. May you have health, strength, and good fortune -I know the skill and the courage will not be wasting-to turn these instruments to similar account. The record of your anterior and recent journeys, and the additions they have produced to scientific and accurate knowledge, are already among the brightest pages of our journals. We have ample proof of your experience and perseverance, and, admiring the spirit which animates you to seek again the rich field of exploration, in which you have won many triumphs, we look forward with hope and confidence to your return, with still ampler stores and higher honours."

Mr. Andersson replied:

"My Lord,-I receive this mark of distinction from the Royal Geographical Society with great pleasure, and with emotions of deep gratitude. Those who have never been in similar circumstances can scarcely form a just idea of the intense satisfaction a person experiences on finding his exertions, however small, thus appreciated. I am sure it must also be highly pleasing to my friend Mr. Galton, now present, to see the person on whom he, as it were, bestowed his mantle, honoured in this manner. This award is doubly gratifying to my feelings, since I can only lay claim to be half an Englishman.

Once more, my Lord, allow me to thank you for this award, as well as for the kind, feeling, courteous, and flattering manner in which your Lordship has presented it."

Such

SABBATH OBSERVANCE. BECAUSE an object is near, it does not, therefore, follow that it is necessarily well known. The bulk of British people know very little of their neighbours, the French, beyond the fact that they are a people of great numbers, great activity, elegant, generous, vivacious, and greatly addicted to war. With the religious condition of the people very few are acquainted; they know this, however, that France has immemorially been the land of Infide lity, the women intensely superstitious, and the men largely atheistic. has been, and such is their condition up to the present time. Recent publications of various kinds and magnitudes, have contributed somewhat to illustrate the subject; but there is reason to believe that they have not extensively met the public eye. Among those who have observed and recorded their observations, is that eminent individual, the Editor of the New York Tribune, MR. HORACE GREELEY. That gentleman, while sojourning in Paris, transmitted to New York a number of valuable letters full of interesting facts relative to Paris and the Parisians. The following is a portion of his reflections touching the Christian Sabbath:

"To stand on the top of that arch on a pleasant afternoon, and see western Paris pour into the Avenue Champs Elysée, and out through the Barrière de l'Etoile into the wood of Boulogne, is a magnificent spectacle. Paris has no other equal to it. The Champs Elysées, the Place Concorde, with its fountains and obelisk of Luxor, are directly in front, with the garden and palace of the Tuileries beyond them; on your right, a mile or so distant, is the Champ de Mars, on which, if it be Sunday afternoon, a horserace is pretty certainly in progress; whether it be or not, the sports of the Hippodrome, close at hand, are certain to be in preparation, if not already going forward; while the public gardens which line that side of the avenue, are either already thronged with pleasureseekers, or preparing for the dancing revels of the approaching night. I am no formalist, and would not have Sunday kept absolutely sacred from labour and recreations, with all the strictness enjoined in the Mosaic ritual; I believe the cramped and weary toiler through six days of each week, may better walk or ride out with his children, and breathe the fresh, pure air on Sunday, than

not at all; yet this French use of the Christian Sabbath as a mere fête day, or holiday, impresses me very unfavourably. Half the stores are open on that day; men are cutting stone, and doing all manner of work, as on other days; the journals are published, offices open, business transacted; only there is more hilarity, more dancing, more drinking, more theatre going, more dissipation, than on any other day of the week. I suspect that labour gets no more pay in the long run for seven days' work per week than it would for six; and that morality suffers, and philanthropy is more languid than it would be if one day in each week were generally welcomed as a day of rest and worship."

Now while this is a very painful picture, there can be no doubt of its truth. MR. GREELEY is a gentleman, we believe, whose religion sits very loosely on him-a fact which renders his testimony all the more valuable. He himself, indeed, confesses that he is “no formalist," and that he is prepared to surrender a portion of the Sabbath either for labour or recreation; yet even this gentleman is shocked with the state of Sabbath observance in Paris! Now if it be true that "Evil communications corrupt good manners," we are not a little solicitous about the effects of an extensive intercourse between the two countries. We are the more concerned because, at present, the probabilities are that a very large number of the British people will repair to Paris to see its CRYSTAL PALACE EXHIBITION. An event of so interesting a character, and the fact that the Sovereign of England repaired thither for the same purpose, unite to excite an earnest and devout wish that our countrymen may not lose their affection for the Sabbath, and gratify their taste for novelty at the expense of their conscience. Already our country has suffered much from the extent of the intercourse which has obtained between England and the Continent; and we are confident that whatever tends to increase this, will at the same time tend to increase feelings but too favourable to the Continental Sunday. He knows little, and reflects less, who can doubt for a moment that the recent endeavours which have, in a variety of ways, been made to relax the bonds of Sabbath observance, are the result of Continental influence, working on the hearts of ungodly men. Nothing will satisfy these inconsiderate people but the assimilation of the London to the Parisian Sabbath. It is therefore of the utmost importance

that all classes and conditions of Christians amongst us should be aware of this fact, that, in their several walks and ways, they may properly discharge the duties which in these eventful times devolve upon them.

TOMB OF THE LATE CZAR
NICHOLAS.

AN American gentleman at ST. PETERSBURG, on the 13th of April last, has recorded the events which passed before him, in respect to the tomb of the late Czar Nicholas, as follows:

"The most interesting church in St. Petersburg is that dedicated to St. Peter and Paul, otherwise called the "Fortress Church," as it stands within the citadel of the city. Its lofty spire, precisely resembling that of the Admiralty, rises far above all others, to the height of 340 feet; and its gilded surface shines dazzlingly in the sun. It is said that 12,000 ducats have already been expended in the gilding of this spire. But within the Fortress Church rest the remains of all the Czars since Peter the Great. No European monarchs rest so unostentatiously, and no others are buried within the walls of a fortress. To each Emperor there is erected merely a sarcophagus, with frequently his initial letters engraved upon it. Each of these sarcophagi is covered with a pall of cloth of gold, embroidered with the double-headed eagle. Upon the Grand Duke Coustantine's tomb lie the keys of some Polish fortresses, while Alexander's bears a small military medal, with his portrait. Each tomb is surrounded by a neat iron railing, and the part of the nave devoted to the tombs is agair. separated from the body of the chuch. As I visited the church during Lent, the cloth of gold was concealed in every case by a faded black covering.

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Beginning with Peter the Great, I passed by all the Czars in chronological order. Here lay the great Catharine; and, sleeping quietly by her side, her husband, Peter III., to whom she in her lifetime refused this place. Around one of the sarcophagi I saw a dense crowd, and, approaching it, found it that of Nicholas. The cloth was new, and no dust had settled upon the ermine border. His initial letter was embroidered in amaranth, and a cardle burus day and night upon the ton b.

The Presbyterian has an article, in which he undertakes to show the inefficiency of Congregationalism in reference to the case of the division of the church in Enfield, Connecticut. We could better judge of the conclusiveness of the argument he has drawn from that case if we better understood the facts. The splitting of a large congregation into two is an event which sometimes takes place in the best ecclesiastical families. But we are happy to see that the Presbyterian keeps both debt and credit in his books. For in another column, on the same page, he has an article which might have gone under the head of Per contra. It is as follows:

"CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH EXTENSION. Six new Congregational churches in Wisconsin, it is said, have been dedicated since the year came in, and several more are in process of erection. They have been built on the strength of encouragement given by the Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund lately raised by that denomination. Would that such results might provoke our own church to a like good work. We have ample means, if they could only be properly developed."

Now this strikes us as a confession which in some way touches the matter of the relative efficiency of Congregationalism; and were we to grant (which be far from us) that Presbyterianism is more efficient for the good purposes of church discipline, the facts which are before the world will show that the system which brings every individual member to partake in all church action, brings the mass to more effective action in works of beneficence than that which does the business by delegated powers in the session. A few years ago we were in conversation with one of the oldest and most distinguished ministers now in the Presbyterian body, a native of New England, who was lamenting the imperfections of Congregationalism, as illustrated in the case of Dr. Bushnell. But he, of his own accord, ended the discourse with regrets that his own church had not the efficiency of the New England churches in the matter of beneficence and of evangelizing operations.

There is something remarkable in this Chapel Building affair, which ap

pears to have originated in the corresponding movements in England, and to have been conducted with peculiar success. Upon the principle of concentration with a view to power and efficiency, they have converged their labours upon a single region, and the result is, the starting, almost simultaneously, of no fewer than six new Meeting Houses, by our not very correct friends, called "churches."

The tribute paid to the efficiency of the New England churches in the matter of benefactions, and of evangelical operations, with which the foregoing closes, is very gratifying. We are not amongst those who affect to despise Presbytery. We can conceive of that system, administered by wisdom and spirituality, being made to work with tremendous power. In the matter of a converted Ministry, a pure fellowship that is, a fellowship, so far as man can judge, composed of converted men-and the scriptural administration of ordinances, there is nothing in Presbyterianism to prevent the accomplishment of all that Independency contends for. We hold, of course, that Independency is alone the more apostolic plan; but next to it, and second best, is Presbyterianism. It is to be regretted, however, that Independency has frequently been presented in a false attitude. Congregationalism has been pushed into an Independency identical with isolation-a state of things by no means harmonious with the proceedings of the Apostles as stated and detailed in the New Testament Scriptures.

ECCLESIASTICAL CHANGES.

THE more opulent inhabitants of the City of London, and indeed, of all Cities of magnitude, in our land have, of late years, manifested a strong tendency to go forth to the suburbs, or beyond them. The effect of this has been serious, not only to trade generally, but to churches of all denominations. To our certain knowledge, most of the London churches have felt, and are continuing to feel, the evil effects of this emigrant spirit, since it is only persons of means that can afford to practice in that way, and consequently their loss to their churches is very great. Liberal in every good cause, and ready to every good work, the removal of a half dozen of these from a church may be equivalent to the reduction of its weight, influence, and power of contribution 30 or 40 per cent., or even more.

But such emigration must not be viewed as just so much loss to the general cause;